To keep momentum going, customers were asked to share pictures of themselves enjoying a drink with their personalized coke bottle on social media. The result? Coca Cola’s customers stepped into the role of advertiser.

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Instead, it is one of thousands of User Generated Content (UGC) campaigns that brought the business it promoted millions of revenue and a whole new image.

“The next wave of the Web is going to be user-generated content.” – John Doerr, Venture Capitalist.

But what exactly is User Generated Content?

User Generated Content is defined as any type of content that has been created and put out there by unpaid contributors or, using a better term, fans. It can refer to pictures, videos, testimonials, tweets, blog posts, and everything in between and is the act of users promoting a brand rather than the brand itself.

So, UGC sounds like another one of those marketing buzzwords, right? In fact, it isn’t a fad at all. It’s been burning brightly for a while (well, a while for the fast-paced world of the internet).

Let’s take it back to 2009 for a moment to Burberry’s Art of the Trench UGC campaign. Seven years ago, brands were adopting the idea of their fans promoting their business – because word-of-mouth referrals are the best kind of referrals, even in the digital age.

Burberry asked its loyal fans to upload pictures of themselves and their friends wearing the brand’s iconic trench coat. All Burberry had to do was curate the best submissions, which they showcased on a dedicated microsite and their Facebook page.

Online users are become increasingly savvy in knowing which companies are using slimy marketing tactics, and which ones are being authentic and transparent. You don’t need me to tell you which ones are most successful.

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In a study run by Cohn & Wolfe, 63% of consumers said they would rather buy from a company they consider to be authentic over a competitor.

Authenticity is so important in today’s online world. Customers are no longer the passive consumers led by TV commercials and billboards. Instead, they’re active choosers of their own fate and want a say in who they do and don’t buy from.

But how do they choose who to buy from? They opt for brands that have the same values as them, brands that they can connect with on a human level, and brands that “get them”.

It Creates a Community

UGC brings audiences together. Instead of it being an “us” against “them” situation, where brands are constantly trying to win consumers over, UGC brings everyone together in one big happy family.

Point 2 and 4 are of particular interest with UGC. Influence has to work both ways – members also have to feel like they have influence over the community, an element that UGC puts on the table.

Shared emotional connection is pushed through UGC, too. MacMillon and Chavis stated that healthy communities have a story, and this is what brings them together.

It’s Cost Effective

UGC is all about the users creating content. They’re unpaid and do it for a number of reasons, whether it’s to share their experience, build a connection with like-minded people, or to be in with a chance of winning something.

This, obviously, is considerably cheaper than forking out thousands – or even millions – for prime-time TV commercials and Times Square billboards.

The beauty of UGC is that the users run the show, while marketers don’t have to empty their pockets on campaigns that may or may not perform well.

The ROI is High

According to ComScore, brand engagements rise by 28% when consumers are exposed to a mixture of professional marketing content and user-generated content.

Take Starbucks’ White Cup Contest that took place back in 2014 as an example. Customers were encouraged to doodle all over their white Starbucks cups and post their images as entries for a competition to find a template for a limited edition Starbucks cup.

Nearly 4,000 customers submitted entries in just three weeks, showing that people were ready and willing to engage with the brand.

UGC vs Traditional Marketing

Consumers are considerably less passive than they used to be when it comes to advertising. They’re now more active in the decisions they make, who they social listen to, and who they choose to buy from and engage with.

These days, buying traditional ads both on external media and online is a competitive game (and, even if you pull out the big bucks, you still might not catch the attention of your customers).

UGC works as social proof, too. In a 2013 study, 79% of consumers admitted to trusting online reviews as much as in-person recommendations. That’s a huge metric.

Think for a moment about the ALS Association Ice Bucket Challenge. The charity challenge went viral for a few months, increasing awareness of the ALS Association (which not many people knew about beforehand) and bagging the company $100 million in donations. No small feat.

The Best Examples of Brands Using UGC

Let’s pull this altogether by diving into some UGC campaigns that have really worked.

Lululemon’s #thesweatlife Campaign

Yoga clothing brand Lululemon wanted to bring their audience together and create a community around their business. In 2013, they came up with #thesweatlife campaign, which encouraged their customers to post pictures of themselves in Lululemon gear on Instagram.

“We created the program as a way to connect with our guests and showcase how they are authentically sweating in our product offline,” says Lululemon brand manager Lesia Dallimore. “We see it as a unique way to bring their offline experiences into our online community.”

In the first couple of months, the brand notched up over 7,000 photos of its customers (or “brand ambassadors”) on Instagram and Twitter, and the unique #sweatlife gallery which was created especially for the campaign received more than 40,000 unique visitors.

They pulled together social shares, images, and videos onto a single page, where visitors to the festival could scroll through and relive their memories after the festival had ended.

Throughout the weekend of the Chipotle Cultivate Festival, which took place in San Francisco, the brand racked up more than 1,200 social posts and a whopping 3 million impressions. What’s more, over 37.5% of the visitors scrolled through the Tint to load more content from the weekend.

Belkin’s Lego iPhone Cases

Back in 2013, Belkin ran a UGC campaign that included people’s favourite gadget – the iPhone. Partnering up with Lego, they asked customers to create cases for their phones using customizable Lego blocks.

They then posted the images onto Instagram using the hashtag #LEGOxBelkin. This is the perfect example of customers doing the selling for the brand because this simple but effective marketing method showed potential buyers just how cool, diverse, and trendy Belkin cases could be in an organic and authentic way.

NASDAQ’s All-Encompassing UGC

NASDAQ is a strong supporter of UGC content, using it across many of their brands including Virgin America, ETSY, Zebra, and Biogen. They use it to accumulate and bring together social content at social events and other important calendar dates.

NASDAQ uses Tint across a number of different channels when they’re running a big event, meaning the social shares get seen on large screens in Times Square and TV monitors all over the world.

“What makes Tint the best is it allows us to easily approve content on the go from the app,” says Director of Integrated Marketing at NASDAQ, Joshua Machiz.

And that’s another reason UGC is so important. In such a fast-paced, constantly-changing online landscape, content needs to be quick and on-trend. Instead of spending months and millions coming up with an advertising campaign that might be out of date by the time it finally airs, UGC allows brands to stay on the ball and stay current with their customers.

Brands can constantly be in touch with their audience, which means they stay at the forefront of minds.

The power of UGC is easy to see, and there’s no doubt that we’ll be seeing much, much more of it in the coming years as brands tap into the power of their audiences and take a step back from pushy sales tactics.

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To keep momentum going, customers were asked to share pictures of themselves enjoying a drink with their personalized coke bottle on social media. The result? Coca Cola’s customers stepped into the role of advertiser.

User Generated Content is defined as any type of content that has been created and put out there by unpaid contributors or, using a better term, fans. It can refer to pictures, videos, testimonials, tweets, blog posts, and everything in between and is the act of users promoting a brand rather than the brand itself.

Love the stats and examples here! Very great summary of what UGC is, why it’s becoming more popular and effective, and relevant examples to understand!

Supreme Landscaping

This is a great article and here at Supreme Landscaping Products we do pretty much the same but in a slightly different way.

We speak to our customers a lot and we know that landscapers and builders don’t always have the time or the inclination to get into social media and/or blogging. Some of them don’t even have a website or a blog, they’ve only got a Facebook page.

Our approach is to ask them for ‘before and after’ photographs of the projects they’ve used our products on and we publish them on our blog and share them across our social media network.

This is great for us as we get great content and often our customers include shots of the products they use which promotes our great products and it’s also great for our customers because they’ve got a quality point of reference for new potential customers with pretty much minimal effort.

I think this has helped us as an online Hard Landscaping Products distributor as very few (if any) of our competitors have the resources to provide a similar service. I like to think it’s pretty a cool USP and builders merchants are going to find it expensive to copy our approach.

To keep momentum going, customers were asked to share pictures of themselves enjoying a drink with their personalized coke bottle on social media. The result? Coca Cola’s customers stepped into the role of advertiser.

Ahmed

Hi Jose,
This is an amazing blog post that you have shared. The way you have explained all the points is commendable.
Thanks for this enlightening article on UGC.